She's chillin'

We were thinking we would never get Bluebell in the stanchion given initial leading attempts... but we both had a couple of sessiins persuading her forward with food and then put a head collar on her and all of a sudden she let Doug lead her up the hill and then in to the stanchion. Who knows what changed since the rodeo failed attempts. The head collar? Although we had tried that before. Tying her head to a tree to get the nose clamp in convinced her we were the boss cows? She could sense Dougwas at the end of his tether?

Anyway, here she is just relaxing...

You can also see pipe Doug has put in behind the stanchion to help drainage.

Calf is due around Doug's birthday.

Apparently Islay has been in the stanchion too although didn't get her horns through the front bit yet...

Meanwhile I was having travel nightmare! This huge crowd is tring to get on the DLR. What is normally 25 min jouney took 2 hours because Jubilee line broke down. I was carrying a sink too! A tiny one for the new flat, but still pretty heavy. This is Tower Gateway DLR which is not normally anywhere near my route to work. I walked on to Shadwell where it was quieter - and I used to live as a student.

Using the stanchion and other cow news

On Satruday we got next to no milk. Bif was obviously being greedy. After that we left Buttercup on the drive overnight (to mow it) and Bif was in the field with his Aunties - he always goes to visit them while Buttercup is being milked and refuses to go under the fence to get to her, although he will happily go under the one to get in to his Aunties field. He obviously didn't make it on to the drive all night as she had plently of milk this monring. Around 6l - we normally get something like 1.5l a day. Another advantage was that Bif was so super keen to feed afterwards that we could catch him, something we haven't been able to do for weeks!

We have been trying to teach Bluebell to be led, but with not a great deal of success. She will occasionally step forward for a handful of cow nuts, but more usually just reaches forward and forward without moving her feet and then gives up. Any attempt to drag her along ends up with her going 'bat shit crazy, rodeo style' in Doug's words. Which means she leaps about like a mad thing and tanks off like a giant glumphasorus down the hill. There is no chance you can hang on for this - which is bad as it has taught her she can get away. If only she had been taught to lead when she was small...

Then after the milking and leading effort we thought hmmmm we haven't seen Hainoa today. We were just assuring each other that she was just at the bottom of yhe field when Doug spotted her on the neighbors drive. Aaargh! Another half an hour getting her back. She is now with Buttercup as she getts on better with her than the other cows. We are hoping to take her to a bull next weekend but can't find a vehicle to take her in. 

It was pouring in rain at the start of all this, but beautiful by the end of the day.

Do you think it is meant to be like that?

Is the end of the wing meant to be bent?!?

It is a new plane apparently. The queue to take off at gatwick was an hour long!

Nice sunset

Stanchion

Not quite finished yet as it needs some cross pieces for strength. But looking good!

Here it is with a diagonal piece in. Now all it needs is a bit of strengthening round the entrance. It is something about the photos that make the verticals look not parallel. They are prefect :)

We have decided it is ready for training Bluebell to go in it ready for when she is due to give birth in around a months time. Now all we need to do is get it part way down the drive where it is going to live... It does come to pieces somewhat...

Photos from London

Fortnum and Masons

Yummy chocolates and fruit creams

Posh tea

The V&A

Tipoos Tiger at the V&A

A holy calf

Royal Albet Hall

River trip to Greenwich

Cable car over the Thames

The beach

Dinner at The Gun - lovely gastro pub on the river

St Pauls

Made me laugh

Best curtains I ever made

Ok so these are the first curtains I have made, but pleased with how they have come out.

Lorna (my mum) made curtains for pretty much every flat I lived in. When she was terminally ill with cancer she was worried about what I was going to do, so gave me some special lessons on curtain making. I have also watched her make many many pairs. Normally she does separete lining though and I decided to do fully lined - why make it too easy!

Now I have to make 5 more pairs for the new flat. Aaargh it is a full time job.

Bif seems well

I mentioned last week that Bif had a worrying cough and intermittent breathing problems. We wormed him and gave antibiotics as well as moving him and Buttercup in to a separate field so Bluebell stopped stealing his milk. One of these things - or just time - seems to have made him better. He does the odd cough still after very enthusiastic prancing or running but overall he seems fine. He is also putting on weight which must be good. He is pretty impossible to catch now - which we are going to havr to overcome somehow as we need to dehorn and castrate him at some point soon...

Clabber

1. Clabber is a food produced by allowing unpasteurized milk to turn sour at a specific humidity and temperature. Over time, the milk thickens or curdles into a yogurt-like substance with a strong, sour flavor.
   
   
   This is the description of clabber on wikipedia. We have read that it is a good way to feed chickens, and even dogs, cows milk so that they can digest it well. As it is solid, it makes it easier to feed it to the chickens than milk too.
   The first milk I left out with the hope of it clabbering turned fizzy and didn't go solid. The chickens still loved it after I had soaked their grain in it to make it possible to feed it to them.
   For the next attempt I stirred some of the fizzy milk in to it as I have read that you can get clabber going well by stirring failed attempts in to new milk...
   This did go solid although it didn't smell as nice as some reading suggests clabber can, I certainly didn't fancy tasting it. The chickens went mad for it though. 
   
   
   I have mixed some of that in to more milk and set it off again. Apparently eventually it should just turn solid and taste sour but nice, then you can make cheese from it and all sorts...
   

   
   

Milking Stanchion

It needs a tiny bit more work.

We have decided that before Bluebell gives birth we need some way of holding her still for milking. We found with Buttercup it can be crucial that thry are milked as at thr beginning they jus have more than the calf can deal with. They may get mastitis if it is not dealt with. She is due the 10th of September so we need to get on with building it and training her to go in it before then.

Doug has measured the cows, designed it, bought the wood and cut most of it to length. Looking good so far...

Poor Poppy

We went for a walk this afternoon to somewhere not far from home that we have't been before, up in the mountains overlooking Bagneres. Poppy had great fun chasing parapenters (we didn't let her go until they were well off the ground) until one time she came back limping.

From a distance it just looked like she must have slightly bruised a paw or something as she was walking slowly and limping a little, not holding the leg of the ground, not bad. But when she got to us she was really shaking and when Doug lifted her leg to see what was wrong we could see a gaping hole in her chest. Initially we were worried the hole went right through her ribs, but some poking around showed it was deep, but not that deep. She must have run at high speed in to a sharp stick or something. 

She obviously needed a vet and we were stressed about finding one open. A visit to friends with three dogs put us on the right track and we eventually found one open at 6pm on a Saturday. The nice lady put 3 staples in to hold it together and told us to come back in a couple of weeks to have them removed and keep her quiet for a few days.

Right now she is a pathetic sight and can hardly walk as it has all stiffened up. We had to put her jacket on despite it being August to stop her licking and nibbling it. I imagine in a day or two she will be back to her mad self. Hopefully - as Doug is coming to London this weekend and she is staying with friends. Mind you perhaps they will be relieved if she is in a quiet state of mind!

Doesn't look bad now it it stapled together and you can't see the gaping hole inside which is good!

We later moved on from the jacket, via a tea towel to this old shirt of Doug's to stop her licking and nibbling. Bit cooler than her fleece jacket...

Quick Pizza Recipe

200g plain flour

1tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1tsp sugar

150ml milk

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the milk and mix then need for about 5 mins. 

Leave covered to rest for 5 mins

After this just make as you normally do pizza

Roll out and put in to a 12in pizza tin

Top with cheese, tomato and topping as for a normal pizza (depending what the topping is I might put it on now or a minute or two before cooking is complete.

Cook in a hot oven for 8-15 mins depending on the heat of the oven.

Cut and serve

This is the last bite, forgot to take a photo before this...